Stories

Council approves Green Line LRT opening day scenario

Post Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2017

On Monday, May 15, Calgary City Council took a major step forward to building the Green Line--Calgary's next LRT line. The 2026 opening day scenario
for the Green Line will have it run from Crescent Heights, underground through downtown, all the way to the new rail yard and station in Shepard. At
the same time, preparations will be made to extend the line further north and south with future phases happening as new funding becomes available.
You can learn more about the recommendation approved by Council from this comprehensive blog post.

Some quick facts about the Green Line on opening day in 2026:

Includes construction of 20 kilometres and 14 stations, including the Centre City tunnel, and a new maintenance and storage facility, and a fleet of
new low floor LRT vehicles.

Projected to serve 60,000 to 65,000 Calgarians on opening day.

This first stage of the Green Line is based on anticipated funding from the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments for a total of $4.65 billion.

Stage 1 is projected to begin construction in 2020, pending approvals and funding, and is anticipated to open in 2026.

In the 10 years leading up to opening day, Stage 1 is estimated to create over 12,000 direct construction jobs and over 8,000 supporting jobs (engineering,
planning, administration, etc).

An estimated additional 400 long-term operational jobs will be created to operate and maintain Stage 1.

It will reduce greenhouse gases by 30,000 tonnes, the equivalent of 6,000 vehicles being taken off the road on opening day.

Is the most technically complex portion of the Green Line due to the tunnel in the Centre City. Building it now creates the foundation for future extensions,
which can be built station-by-station as additional funding becomes available.

The full 46 km Green Line LRT from 160 Avenue N to Seton in the southeast would be built out in subsequent stages in the future.